Business

The lawsuit alleges that McDonald’s refusal to contract with Allen’s Entertainment Studios Networks and Weather Group “is the result of racial stereotyping through McDonald’s tiered advertising structure that differentiates on the basis of race.” McDonald’s announces plans to accelerate “the allocation of advertising dollars to diverse-owned media companies, production houses and content creators.”

Stocks ended Thursday higher, breaking a three-day slump. Investors were encouraged by the latest jobs data that showed fewer Americans filing for unemployment benefits, another sign that the economic recovery is underway. The S&P 500 gained 1.1%. The benchmark index is still on track for its second straight weekly loss.

In the second month to report an explicit year-over-year comparison impacted by the COVID-19 ad recession, the U.S. advertising marketplace surged 52% over April 2020, another strong indicator that the ad recovery is sustainable.

The station group chooses the GM of its KMSP-WFTC Minneapolis to succeed the retiring Pamela Pearson as head of KCPQ and KZJO in Seattle.

Just in time for the unveiling of its 2021-22 schedule next week, The CW has secured its largest affiliate group for the next season and beyond. The broadcast network and Nexstar Media Group (as well as its operating partners) have reached multi-year agreements to renew CW affiliations in 37 markets across the country (28 Nexstar- and 9 partner-owned television stations), which cover more than 31% of the U.S. audience, serving more than 38 million television households.

Bankers are already starting to salivate over what other megadeals could be in the offing following this week’s surprise pair-up of WarnerMedia and Discovery. AT&T’s desperation to drop a company that it spent $85.4 billion and a year and half in legal fights to acquire raises the immediate question of what else might be possible in an era when Wall Street is pressuring big media conglomerates to keep generating content for audiences hungry to stream their favorite dramas and comedies. (Illustration: Cheyne Gateley for Variety)

A deal would add Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s 4,000 films to Amazon’s streaming library, including the James Bond, Rocky and Legally Blonde franchises.

Discovery’s merger pursuit suggests companies as big as ViacomCBS still aren’t big enough to compete when tech and media giants are on the prowl

Univision is planning to build its addressable advertising capabilities, starting with beta tests with Vizio and Dish this year. More partners will be brought on next year, said Donna Speciale, president of advertising sales and marketing at Univision. Univision earlier announced being involved in the beta testing of Nielsen’s addressable technology, since sold to Roku. It also joined Project OAR, a group led by Vizio that looks to set standards for addressable advertising.

While affiliates face significant collateral damage in the streaming wars and networks’ role in them, Disney and NBCU would be smart to invite those affiliates into their platforms as ViacomCBS has done and continue a strong, long-lucrative partnership. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

The purchase of KTNL Sitka, Alaska, by Ketchikan TV LLC tops the latest list of TV station transactions submitted to the FCC for its approval, according to BIA Advisory Services.

A late drop left Wall Street indexes lower Tuesday. The S&P 500 lost 0.9%, with most of the pullback coming in the last hour of trading. Apple, Facebook and Google’s parent company all lost 1% or more as technology stocks fell broadly.

Discovery announced Tuesday it’s extended the employment contract of president and CEO David Zaslav employment contract through Dec. 31, 2027. His previous contract ran through 2023. The extension was made in connection with the definitive agreement between AT&T and Discovery Inc. to combine WarnerMedia’s entertainment, sports and news assets with Discovery to create a new standalone entertainment company. Zaslav will lead the proposed new company. Above, AT&T CEO John Stankey (l) and Zaslav at Monday’s press conference announcing the deal.

“We will look at all of the sponsorships across all of our business going forward and make sure that they reflect the potential and the audience,” Rita Ferro, Disney’s ad sales chief, says.

Scripps’ Octane OTT sales team and Amazon Advertising will work together to sell Amazon OTT inventory across IMDb TV, livestreaming service Twitch, top-tier network and broadcaster apps and Amazon’s News apps to local businesses.

Jason Kilar was named chief executive of WarnerMedia just last year, but now he is negotiating his departure after being sidelined by David Zaslav, the longtime leader of Discovery.

“We are the best media company in the world” says the CEO poised to lead the content powerhouse. The enlarged Discovery-WarnerMedia will have massive reach across news, sports, unscripted, lifestyle content and some of entertainment’s biggest franchises and tentpole events from the HBO and Warner Bros. imprimaturs.

This week’s announcement of a mega-merger between AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Discovery must still pass muster with consumers who may not be willing to pay a premium fee for much of what they watch.

Fox is launching its own NFT (non-fungible token) company, Blockchain Creative Labs, the company said on Monday as part of its upfront presentation. Blockchain Creative Labs, which will create, sell and manage NFTs, tokens and digital goods, will be launched in conjunction with Dan Harmon’s new series Krapopolis. Krapopolis has the distinction of being the first-ever animated series curated entirely on the blockchain.

U.S. stocks slipped further from records on Monday amid increased fears of inflation. The S&P 500 dipped 10.56, or 0.3%, to 4,163.29, with tech stocks and other former market darlings once again taking the brunt of the losses. The benchmark index is coming off a 1.4% weekly drop from its record high, which would have been even worse if not for a late rebound.

The station group promotes her from sales director to oversee its ABC affiliate WLOS and operations of WMYA, the market’s MNT affiliate owned by Cunningham Broadcasting.

Makan Delrahim, who as the Justice Department’s antitrust chief during Donald Trump’s administration challenged AT&T’s combination with Time Warner, has a different view of the planned spinoff of WarnerMedia. “I wish both companies and Mr. Zaslav and Mr. Stankey the best,” Delrahim said, referring to David Zaslav, the CEO of Discovery, and John Stankey, the CEO of AT&T.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a general manager, a brand manager, an assistant news director, a commercial producer, a traffic coordinator and a digital sales manager.

Broadcasters aiming to diversify digital revenue streams in the wake of disruption in the programmatic advertising universe may consider partnering with The Weather Company, an IBM Business, and offering a premium version of their mobile weather app. The Max Mobile Premium app, pictured here, uses AI-powered messaging to invite Max Mobile users to upgrade.